


Sub-0-Hero

by Icechild



Series: Sub-0-Hero [1]
Category: Original Work
Genre: Angst, Blood, F/M, Family, Friendship, Gore, Hurt Breeze, Hurt No Comfort, Hurt Sam, Hurt Zero, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, New York City, Original Character(s), Original work - Freeform, Superheroes, Violence, hurt Jake, partners, triggering
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-01-10
Updated: 2019-01-18
Packaged: 2019-03-02 23:55:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 9
Words: 15,559
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13329123
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Icechild/pseuds/Icechild
Summary: Sub 0 Hero is the superhero of New York City, he has been since he was seven years old. As a real life hero he got flack in the beginning, people calling him foolish, he proved them wrong with his control over Ice. Zero's domain allowed him to bring in any and all criminals, until other's like him began to appear. Zero works to save the people he loves but in the end will he be able to? Will his strength be enough to win the fights? Will the hero of ten years fall before the enemies that arise? Read to find out!





	1. Sub-0-Hero

Sitting in the back corner of the classroom sat the seventeen year old introvert. His incredibly blond hair so light it was nearly white. His black and white stripped shirt fitting loosely around his torso, easy to tell that it was many sizes larger than the boy. He was wearing black skinny jeans that bunched up a bit at the white converse on his feet. He sat with his notebook and textbook open on his desk as he stared up at the board and taking notes at the same time. He listened to the lesson closely anxious to get out of the class so he could meet with his friend for lunch. Jake Sanders was just your everyday boy. Or at least that's what everyone thought. He had his own little dark secrets, but those were for another time. Jake had very good grades, he excelled in all his academics and was very good at athletics but apart of no teams. When the bell rang from his physics class he put his books away and walked out of the class to the courtyard where he met up with his friend Sam for lunch.

Sam Ballows was a seventeen year old boy with a head of black unruly hair. Jake and Sam had been friends for about three years and after a certain incident the two of them have been practically inseparable. Again though, those thoughts weren't for right now. This was normal school, with the rest of society. Jake walked over to the oak tree in the corner and sat down in the shade taking his lunch of a sandwich, apple, and water, from his bag. It wasn't very long before Sam came out into the open air. Sam loved the wind. Hot, cold, you name it, if it was air he loved it. The only thing he couldn't stand was a stuffy room, he always wanted to have the wind moving. Still air was always moving because of him. Sam walked over to the oak tree and flopped down on the ground next to him pausing for a second and then looking at Jake.

“It’s hot. Are you okay?” Jake didn't hide the laugh as he rolled his eyes and gave a slick smile to his friend.

“I'm fine. We've been friends for how many years now? And you ask me the same thing every time it gets hot.”

It was the beginning of the school year, and New York was getting ready for the end of summer and beginning of winter. However the heat will get worse before it turns cold.

“Seriously dude, it’s just that you seem a little out of it when it gets hot. You’re always in the cold. Your room is like a freezer man. And if it’s not for health and just cause, you are the craziest person I’ve ever met.”

He laughed again at his friend. The rest of the conversation and lunch seemed to fly by with Sam there. Sam seemed to be the only person that Jake could open up to. He practically told him everything. Almost, everything. The rest of the school day seemed to fly by until finally the last bell rang and Jake stood up from his seat in his calculus class. It was in less than a minute that Sam came flying into the room running straight into him. He was speaking fast and he sounded out of breath, probably from the running.

“Class was so boring please tell me you’ll entertain me on the way home.” Jake sighed.

“Come on. You always think your classes are boring.”

“All of them are. Unless of course...” He paused to tap Jake on the nose with his finger, a sly smirk creeping onto his face. “You’re there. Then it’s the most amazingly fun thing in the world.”

Jake scoffed. “Yeah right.”

Jake started to walk out of the classroom with Sam in tow. He was always a little calmer around Sam, although, he wasn’t too sure why. It was probably just because they were really good friends. Everyone knew how good of friends they were. They were the pair of the school, the example of friendship, all of that label nonsense people like to give, it was them. As the two made their way out of the school to begin their long walk home they stayed silent. It was roughly a ten minute walk from the school to the intersection that they split to continue home. At about five minutes in Sam spoke up.

“Hey. You know, I know that you pay attention to all the hero things. But what if, ya know, what if 0 had an enemy?” He gave him a quizzical look hiding all his other emotions with curiosity. Sub-0-Hero was a real life, famous superhero in New York. He has the power to control ice. Over the ten years he’s been working as a superhero, he has never found someone who could match him in a fight.

“What do you mean enemy? The criminals?” “No. Well. Yes? No, I mean, like what if there was someone else that had powers. And they fought him.”

“That depends on the powers. Why?” “I was just wondering. I mean. If there’s a superhero then there’s bound to be a super-villain right? That’s just the way things work.”

Something was wrong. Sam didn’t normally act like that. He looked distant, thoughtful, maybe even a little sad. He’s always happy always looking up there’s never not a smile or some other goofy expression unless something’s wrong. “Hey, you okay?”

“Huh? Oh, yeah, I’m fine. I just get really curious you know? Don’t worry about it bro.”

It was then that the two of them had to split up. He knew it was an odd question for his friend to ask but he let it slide. After all, Sam was weird in general. They both pay attention to things Superhero related. It was one of the things that made them become friends. The two of them stopped and Jake leaned in a little closer looking Sam in the eye.

“Are you sure you’re okay? That was way out of the blue.”

“I’m fine I’m fine. It’s just that that’s what happens in all the movies. Sooner or later it’ll happen here. Our lives could be like a real superhero movie where the hero comes to save us. Wouldn’t that be so cool?” “Yeah except our lives would be in danger.”

“Yeah then there’s that to I guess haha.”

There was that normal smile again. Still weird but he can figure it out later. They said goodbye to each other and then split to go home. Jake walked the rest of the way to his house alone in silence. He opened the door to his two story white home and stepped in. Jake lived alone. No family what-so-ever to take care of him since as long as he could remember. Honestly, he couldn’t remember that much. His memories only really start from when he was about seven years old. He knew his name, knew his age, knew who he was in all aspects, but he couldn’t remember anything else. He was just alone in this house. No furniture or clothes. There was just a check for ten thousand dollars in his pocket. He used that check to buy things for the house. He felt like he knew what he needed to do but he never understood how he did. Money came every week for him. He’d buy food and clothes and necessary items with it and bills were always paid for by some anonymous figure. Sam knew that he didn’t remember his past. Since the two of them met a few years back while Jake was out shopping and Sam with his family, Sam and his family practically adopted him on sight. After they heard how he had no family and lived alone and not that far from their own house Sam’s parents became kind of like his own.

Sam had the perfect life. He had a mom and a dad who loved him very much. His mother would bake pies for them while they hung out with each other. She worked in a bakery in the city. A nice little street corner shop that was rather popular for its small size and discrete looks. His father was a business owner. Nothing fancy, just a small business owner that worked to help provide for his family. Last but not by any means least, Sam’s little sister, Sarah. She’s only four, but she already acts like a mother to both Sam and Jake from time to time. She looks up to them. Loves them. Perhaps though, the one she looks up to the most, is Sub-0. After all he was a superhero that protected the city she lived in. If someone started to talk about him she would go on and on about how he is the strongest person to have ever lived.

He liked to distract himself with thoughts from the times he would hang out with Sam. His house was already cold enough to make any sane person want a coat, but that didn’t stop him from walking over and turning the thermostat even colder. The cold calmed him down. It felt right. He sat his things down on the couch in the living room and went into the kitchen to make dinner. He never really ate that much and anyone who would see him make food for dinner would think he can’t cook. He simply pulled out meat from his refrigerator and within minutes he had a plate of spicy hot chicken wings. He loved the cold when it came to everything but his food. He loved spicy food. Very spicy food. After he finished eating Jake walked back into the living room and sat down on the couch. He didn’t turn on the lights. He wanted to know the second it got dark outside. Instead, Jake turned on the TV, seeing his breath in light puffs as he reached for the remote. The bright screen lit harshly against the dark room, the sound of the current show blaring against the former silence. The TV ran.

“So you’re just going to leave me?! I’m just a kid you can’t abandon me like this!”

Jake knew what was coming before he could even move to change the channel. Certain things from time to time would trigger some memories. Normally they meant nothing and didn’t bother him much, all except for the major headache that followed them. Jake closed his eyes as flashes of white and snow flashed through his mind’s eye. Snow, cold, blood, pain, his father, where was his father? A child’s voice screaming to not be left. Jake smashed the power button on the remote hard and fast to return the room to its dark quiet state. Jake squeezed his eyes shut trying to block out the pain from his head. He laid down sideways on the couch and hugged himself trying to drown out the world with a nap before it was time for him to go to, work.

He woke up about an hour later. Sitting up on the couch Jake looked around the room, his headache having subsided into a dull throb in the back of his skull. He checked his phone for the time seeing it was nearly time for him to get ready. He would leave a little early tonight. Jake then saw the texts from Sam that had blown up his phone while he had slept. Just Sam’s normal usual texts nothing urgent he had to answer right away. Jake headed up the stairs and down the hallway into his bedroom. Blue walls with a full sized bed tucked in the corner, a closet on the other side and a window in between. A desk with a computer and school books sat on the same wall as the closet with a bookshelf next to it. A coat rack and dressers sitting next to the door with a lamp. Different posters of superheroes hung up on the wall. Jake walked over to his closet and removed the box of his old miscellaneous objects, then carefully pulled up the loose floorboards that were hidden beneath. Jake pulled out the blue and white cloth and the steel armor that followed. Walking with it to his bed and setting it down before putting his closet back in order. Coming back over to his bed Jake took a deep breath and closed the curtain on his bedroom window. Laying on the bed before him was the uniform of Sub-0-Hero. As the sun began to set, it was time for him to go to work.


	2. For the Fans

Seventeen Years Ago

Thousands of hooded figures were together in a large dark room somewhere beyond human comprehension. There was conversation all around the room between the figures. Two female voices ring out in an argument.

“None of them are suited to me yet.” One says.

“You should give him a chance.” The other returns.

She is getting frustrated. “I’m telling you he is not the one.”

“Just try it.” Feeling at her wits end with her sister.

“If it goes wrong it will be your fault.” She then vanishes from the room. Two others in the room feel something shift and know that one has met the needs they have. They will watch them, they will go to them, they will guide them and raise them into heroes.

* * *

 

Present Day

Sub-0-Hero stood on the roof of a tall tower in New York City. His normal nights started with a look out like this, then regular patrols for the rest of the night. Zero had never gone home with anything more than a couple scrapes and some scuffs, on a bad night, let alone anything serious. Even the strongest criminals couldn’t touch him. Zero had the ability to control ice, meaning that he could freeze anything. He could bend it into any shape he needed and he had a physical bond with it that allowed him to sense when it was near its breaking point. He could almost hear the ice talking to him in his head, always calm and always keeping him safe. It could warn him of an attack and it even let him sense where things were. The water in the air could easily be used for his advantage, all it would take is to freeze lightly so it’s not noticeable but he can feel it. He heard Ice’s sweet soft voice in his head alert him to crime, it was always like this.

“In the alley ten streets north, three armed robbers attacking two people.”

If he were to ask someone what ice would sound like if it could talk they would say it would be cold, emotionless and hard. Instead, her voice is calm, soft, sweet, at least she is for him. Ice was always there in his head, in his body. Always helping him and guiding him. Ice was one of the reasons he was still sane after his years of loneliness before meeting Sam.

He couldn’t think about those things now. He had a job to do. Zero nodded and began to run across the roof tops to get to the alley vaulting with ease and landing with practiced comfort. It was under a minute that he had gotten to the alley way getting down to street level without being noticed and peering around the corner at the crime in action. True to Ice’s information it was three men, two knives and one gun, attacking two what appeared to be unarmed females. The girls looked to be about college aged while the men looked slightly older bordering into their thirties.

“Come on kiddies.” Said the one on the left, a knife.

“No use tryin’ to run Hun. We got ya nice where we want ya.” The one on the right, knife.

“Money and phones now pretty ladies and maybe we can be gentle with you instead of, causing you nice, sweet girls problems.” Middle, gun, and what appeared to be the leader. He reached to touch one of the girls faces and that was Zero’s cue to interact.

“Harassing two unarmed citizens in the middle of the night? I can give you a chance but you have to take it the first shot alright? Turn yourselves in and you wont get hurt.”

“Aw dang boss. Whadd’ya think we should do now?” The one on the right said. He held his knife a little tighter and Zero already knew what was going to happen before anything else had a chance to move. Even without Ice talking to him in his head Zero was ready for their clear next move.

“Sorry to do this to you, you’re just a kid, but I’m not going to jail!”

The leader then raised his gun aimed and pulled the trigger, shooting the bullet straight for the teenage superhero’s head.

The only thing the thug hadn’t thought of was the fact that he was no average kid. Most criminals tended to attack rather than give themselves up. They didn’t want to go down and wanted to fight even though they knew they would lose. A wall of ice shot up in front of Zero’s body, the bullet lodging itself in the ice before the wall changed form into spikes and floated around the hero as he took a step closer, no mercy showing in any of his features.

“I gave you a chance. You should have taken it.”

Within the next minute the other two knife wielding thugs jumped forward in an attempt to slash Zero only for their clothes to be run through with spikes of ice, pulling and pinning them against the walls of the alley. The leader making more shots only for Zero to simply side step them and walk straight up to the man. He was able to calmly take the gun from the now terrified and desperate thug. Upon realizing he was now disarmed the thug lashed out with all he had left, his fists. He brought a strong left hook right to the Hero’s chest coming in contact hard and fast. Blood began to run down from Zero’s chest but it wasn’t his own, it was from the thug. Ice had formed over his chest and formed a shield, protecting the unshaken Hero from harm.

“Why do you never learn?” Was all he said before hitting the thug in the head knocking him out and letting his body fall to the ground. Turning back to the other thugs he did the same to them, the ice melting and letting their bodies fall to the ground in the alley before he turned to the girls who were being victimized.

“O. M. G. It’s Sub-0-Hero! Holy crap can I get a selfie?!” They both leaned in closer to him watching his every move. This happens more than one would think.

“Are either of you hurt?” He looked them up and down but saw no signs of injury.

“No, thanks to you we aren’t, hot stuff!”

The girl, long blonde hair, was wearing a mini skirt and a thin strapped tank top, hot pink purse over her shoulder and matching phone case. Doesn’t seem like she quite realizes she would be in a very bad place if he hadn’t shown up to save them. The other was wearing a navy hoodie, her short light brown hair clipping at the fabric just barely long enough to reach it. Jeans, and a messenger bag strapped across her body. She was staring but staying quiet. He shifted his attention to her.

“Are you miss?” He made sure to keep his voice calm and free of the annoyance that was slowly building within him from the other female.She jumped to attention.

“Huh? Oh yeah, Yes! I’m fine. Thank you for saving us.”

She looked down slightly and blushed. So she was a fan. Well, he wasn’t completely opposed to giving out fan-service. He pulled one of the many disposable phones from the pouch on his leg and handed it to her.

“I’m going to call the police, you’ll both need to stay here and give them a statement telling them what happened. I’m going to leave but if you need help or ever feel in danger. You can call me with that.”

“T-thank you...” Her sentence trailed off as she locked eyes with him.

That was his cue to leave, as he headed out of the ally he could hear the other girl talking.

“What, even? Why give it to you? I’m clearly the hotter one.”

He rolled his eyes and made his way to a roof across the street to keep an eye on them as he called the police. After hanging up the phone he heard Ice again.

“She can call you now. You may have put her and yourself in danger.”

“It’s a burner. It can only call me once and it’s untraceable. The only number in it is another burner of mine anyways. Have faith in me I can do this.”

“I know. But you’re still mine to protect.” He felt his body grow colder from the inside out, a hug.

“And you’re mine.”

He closed his eyes for a moment. Sub-0-Hero was the guardian of this city.


	3. Physic Sam

Seventeen Years Ago

Another figure felt a change and vanished just as the other two had just done. She reappeared above New York City. New to her, but she can adjust. The wind picked up around her no one can see her. He will be difficult. But then again, so is she.

* * *

Present Day Jake woke up to the blaring of his alarm clock. He blindly reached out and slapped the button sitting up and rubbing the sleep out of his eyes. He heard the familiar female voice of Ice in his head.

“Good morning Jake. Did you sleep well?”

“As good as ever. Dreamless as usual. But you would know that, you live in me. And my head seems to be your favorite.” She laughed. It was like freshly falling snow playing in his body, the feeling of gentleness washing over him.

He glanced over at his clock, swinging his legs off his bed and standing up stretching out his body from his night time work. He began on his normal morning routine of getting dressed, having gotten a shower when he got home, and going downstairs to make breakfast. He made a basic bowl of cereal and headed off to school. Despite loving the cold temperature outside he put on a jacket, it wouldn’t due to have people notice the similarities between him and his hero persona. He slung his bag over his shoulder and began to walk to school. He went to the corner where he met with Sam in the mornings and split at the end of the day but he didn’t see Sam anywhere. Normally they’d get there at the same time or Jake would get there a little after Sam. He checked his phone to see if there were any texts about him running late or being sick. Sam had no idea that Jake was Sub-0, he couldn’t know. If he knew then it would make him a target. Simply being friends with him made him a target but at least this way they had no information to torture out of him. Even so, when Sam broke routine like this it always made Jake think of all the things that could be happening to him. Luckily Sam came into view before Jake could do something radical. He ran to the corner putting his hands on his knees and panting when he finally reached Jake.

“Sorry. Woke up late. No time to text.” His sentences were short between pants. He took a deep breath and straightened up.

“Well, looks like you’re all better now. I’m feeling in a racing mood. First one to the school wins a free lunch from the other.” And with that he turned and took off running in the direction of the school. He made sure to keep his pace in check. He didn’t need to show off how fast he actually was in front of people. He heard Sam curse and start running to catch up to him.

“No! Wait! Come on man this is just cruel!” He shouted out to his best friend.

“Fine, fine. Hurry up you big baby.”

Jake had an evil smile as Sam got up next to him again and they walked together the rest of the way. That was until being about three feet from the school doors, Sam darted forward and slapped the door.

“Never said the deal was off and I’m first. You now owe me lunch.” Sam had so much ego for something he hadn’t even done the proper way.

Jake rolled his eyes. “Yeah. Now who’s being unfair.”

* * *

True to the word of the deal, Jake bought Sam lunch. Their conversation being about their classes and the rest of the day floating away like a calm summers breeze. They walked home together like always and at the corner they turned to each other. Sam spoke.

“I can’t believe I forgot. Did you hear about it?” He looked at Jake with extreme concentration and excitement.

“What? What are you talking about?” He eyed him checking to see if he was alright and see if it was like what had happened the day before. Nothing.

“I think I might be psychic dude. You know how I asked you about villains and all that? This one website says that last night some guy was seen attacking people. You think he’s some new villain to challenge Zero?”

Sam was excited. Of course he was, he had no idea that Sub-0 was standing right in front of him. He also apparently, didn’t make the connection if this villain managed to defeat Zero his life would be in danger.

“You think that’s a good thing? You do realize villains hurt people right? Guess who are people Sam, us. Do you want attacked?” He raised a brow at his friend.

“I wont get attacked. I’m positive. I’m not an important character in this. It’s not like I know Zero or anything.” He gave Jake an innocent smile. If only he knew.

“Yeah sure, but please, be careful? I don’t want to see you hurt.” He’d have to make sure he wasn’t found out even more than before. Sam’s life could be in danger if this villain was real.

“Yeah yeah yeah. I gotta go. My mom said she’s going to make a new kind of cookie tonight and I, want, to eat, it. You can come over and have some to if you want.”

“Thanks but I’ve got homework to do. Save some for me for tomorrow okay?”

“Sure thing buddy.”

Sam gave him another smile before turning and running off in the direction of his home leaving Jake alone with his thoughts. He began walking to his house a little faster than what he normally did. He wanted to do some more research on this “villain” before work tonight.

* * *

Upon getting home Jake had immediately discarded his school supplies in favor of his laptop. He knew what blogs and websites had the most reliable information about the local Superhero. Jake had spent most of his time researching those blogs to make sure no information slipped from his mouth that he couldn’t have found out from the internet, and to also make sure that no one on the internet had any crucial information. Also a little bit to check on how the public saw what he was doing, he would do it regardless. Helping people was what he wanted to do and he was going to save people whether they wanted saved or not.

It wasn’t long before he saw these sites talking about the new villain. They were calling him Ghastly Gust. He was seen using a sickle and chain and, from the looks of it, this new villain had the power to control wind. Reports had been made of tornado like strength shattering windows and throwing people away and-. This is bad. The new villain, with the power to control the wind, Ghastly Gust, was hunting for Sub-0-Hero. Well, if it was a fight he wanted, it was a fight he would get.


	4. Ghastly Gust

 Zero had made sure to be prepared when he left the house. He had found out everything he could about Gust in the time he had before he had to get ready. He would keep an eye out and ask Ice to alert him to anything strange in the wind. It wasn’t her specialty but she would do as much as she could. He had no interest going into this without proper knowledge of his opponent. Gust probably had just as much knowledge of Zero as he does to Gust, maybe more. He set out on his patrols for the night keeping up his cocky, all enjoying of being a punish-er of crimes, that made up his attitude as Sub-0-Hero.

The night was going with no sign of the new villain, all up until he heard a scream. He ran in its direction trying to get there before anything else could happen to the apparent victim.

“Ice can you tell me what’s happening?” He meant to shout out to nothing. He could talk to her only in his head, but unless he was in public as Jake he tended to do it out loud. It just felt more natural.

“I can’t. Something is blocking me I can’t see it.” She remained calm as always. If he ever got out of hand she could calm him down by being calm herself.

“We’re about to find out.”

He focused on stealth as he vaulted across the roofs of two buildings. The wind was strong and whipping around him as he got closer to the scene. Upon arriving he saw a girl against the wall hugging herself, no one was with her, she was alone. He jumped down, landed in a crouch and carefully came towards her. She had long brown hair and a purple shirt hanging off one shoulder to show a black tank-top underneath, gray skinny jeans and converse.

“Are you alright?” He was examining her for injury but didn’t see anything.

“H-He’s coming back.” She was clearly terrified as she spoke.

“Who?” If it was Gust or some random criminal he needed to know.

An alarm went off on her watch. She looked scared and relieved all at once as she hurriedly spoke.

“No time. I need to leave.”

She ran past him and out of the alley leaving Zero on his own surrounded in the strange wind. He heard a footstep behind him and then a strong voice that sounded like a darker version of something very familiar to him but he couldn’t place what.

“Hello, Zero. Come to play a little game?”

Upon turning around he was met with a figure that was clad in white armor, black reinforced cloth showing where the armor had gaps. Black hair that appeared to be the same length as his own and skin slightly tanner than his. He looked like a knight with the armors layout until it came up to his neck and head. There was nothing to guard his throat and the only metal on his head was a piece of white armor that shielded his mouth and nose. There was black fabric that came up around his neck and under the armor on his face possibly to act for concealing his identity as well as protection.

There was no doubt in Zero’s head, this was Ghastly Gust.

* * *

He instantly took in all the facts about his opponent including the fact that the spinning sickle-and-chain in his hand looks impressively deadly. He was on guard but kept up his facade as cocky and light heart-ed. He wasn’t going to let this get to him, just because there was another super powered human and they obviously wanted a fight didn’t mean he was going to wig out.

“Depends on the game. If it’s a you kill me and I die then no thanks.” He gave a smirk to the villain when he saw his eyebrows slant in a glare.

“This isn’t the time to be cocky Ice Boy. Your time is up here.” His voice was dark and serious. It still sounded familiar but he couldn’t tell why.

“Oh? Why’s that?” The teen-aged hero was curious as to how weak this villain thought he was.

“All ice must someday melt.” His sentence was punctuated with the sickle, that had been spinning the whole time, being launched with the aid of wind directly at his face.

He ducked under just in time for the sickle to fly above his head and be pulled back to Gust. Looks like the time for talking is over now. Sub-0 didn’t use weapons, he’d had no use for them, after all a hero’s job is to protect not harm so no weapon means no chance. Expect for the fact he can make any weapon from ice. He stood again squaring his shoulders and looking straight at Ghastly Gust.

“That the best you can do? I read about you I know you use wind but you still missed.” He was keeping his arrogant facade here. If he was right about the situation this was about to get much much worse.

“Careful with what you say Icy or you might find yourself in a territory you don’t belong.” He grabbed the sickle hilt and attached it to the back of his armor suit right in the gap of the ab and leg armor. The wind around the teen hero became even more violent as it twirled around him and before long was forcing him up off the ground and into the air. “You see, I can stop your movements with the wind. I am in complete control.”

Within the same second before he could do anything to respond, Zero was being flung into the alley wall. He heard Ice shout in his head as he pulled a barrier to help break his fall as he crashed. He pushed off and to the ground glaring up at the villain but keeping a playful smirk on his face.

“Getting serious now Popsicle?” There was definitely something in his voice that made him familiar. Something about the way he talked to him.

“I think I’ve made my decision. I’ll play your little game on one condition. If I win it you turn yourself into the police.” He was curious of the villains reaction. After all they appeared to be the same age. He probably had a family and what would they do.

Ghastly Gust hesitated but for only a moment.

“Deal, but you have to play serious. I have people I want to prove something to. In order to do that I have to destroy you.”

Gust lifted himself into the air and shot tendrils out to grab onto Zero only for him to block them with ice. While he was distracted by the tendrils he heard Ice give a warning and looked just in time to see the sickle flying at his head. No time to dodge so he pulled ice up as a shield in front of his face. His ice has been able to stop everything from guns to knives, but apparently wind powered and reinforced sickles were another story as the tip managed to shove through the ice and break the shield. This time Zero was ready and grabbed the blade rotating with it to not cut himself and pull it away from him. This left him open for wind attacks as tendrils shot for his legs and lifted him again.

“Big hero and you’re being so foolish with your first super villain. You are not what she thinks you are. I have to prove it to her. If I don’t I can never look her in the eyes again, so now, die!”

“Now don’t you think that’s extreme?”

He could feel the wind trying desperately to fling him back again yet he remained in one spot. He froze the water in the air to keep himself in place. He was going to counter this.

“What? Why aren’t you in the wall?” Good he was getting mixed in his emotions now it’s time for the hero’s comeback.

“You see. I think we should take this man to man. If you want to prove something to a special lady of yours then wouldn’t it be more impressive if you took me with your fists?” He offered another smile knowing Gust wouldn’t return it.

“You’re just afraid because you can’t beat me with powers.” he said.

“Wrong. I just wanted to give you a chance to go on your own will before I did this.”

He stretched his hands out to make a show of what he was doing and focused on the air around Gust and himself freezing the water inside and paralyzing the wind. He was fighting against Gust’s power and strength but he could handle it with what he’s seen so far. Ice formed mid air and rapidly approached the now worried villain. Gust was very strong, that was no question, but Sub-0 has been doing Hero work for years. As Jake he would study other heroes fictional and real to learn from their mistakes and to try to make himself a better hero for the people he aimed to protect. The ice shot up and restrained Gusts arms, in a show of pride and power Zero made ice plates form in the air for him to walk on over to the teen villain.

“You see now, you should respect your elders.” He gave a smirk as he drew back his fist and then brought it down into Gust’s face. “If you ever think you can hurt the people of this city again you are wrong.” He kept up his smirk, however the longer this moment went on the more sinister it became. “If you ever think you can beat me you’re wrong.” Another punch. “If you ever try to harm anyone or anything again. I will find you, and I will destroy you again and again.” The key was to destroy the Villain while they were beginners. If you take it easy then they come back stronger and more prepared, the hero is older and it’s more chaos. He would stop Gust here. “Now it’s time for the Ghastly Gust to turn to stillness.” He punched again this time snapping Gust’s head to the side and snapping off the metal shielding that had been covering the lower half of his face. When Gust looked back at him, Zero froze. Winding for another punch suspended in the air he froze. This couldn’t be real. He knew that face, he knew he recognized the voice, but this, this could not be real. Even covered in black fabric he knew that face anywhere. He must have let his thoughts show because Gust spoke.

His voice was softer than before but still dark. “Well? Aren’t you going to turn the Gust to stillness? What’s wrong hero, frostbite?”

“Why?” His voice trailed off into the empty alley below them, the question catching the villain off guard. “Why would you do this why didn’t you tell me?”

“What are you-” He wouldn’t let him finish. His chest felt tight, he couldn’t bare the thought of this actually happening. After everything that’s happened. He could lose the only light in his life.

“Why are you a villain Sam?!”


	5. Learning

The night was frozen in perfect cold wind around them. No one seeing or hearing the scene unfolding in the lonely alley. Both of them stared at the other, no one speaking for a solid minute before Gust made a move. He shot his hand up around Zero’s throat and caught him off guard, giving him and the wind movement again and slamming Zero against the alley wall. The ice was pulled back and Zero made no move of retaliating.

“How did you know that?” He spoke in a hushed, urgent, angry, whisper.

He remained silent as the teen hero thought over all the times they’d talk about Sub-0-Hero. Would Sam hate him now? After all Gust was trying to kill the hero, how would Sam react to find out that it was him?

“Answer me!” He shouted. He’s angry, furious even. He saw him raise his fist before he brought it down into Zero’s face. He continued to punch after there was no response. “Come on Hero. You said my name. How do you know my name? Why aren’t you fighting back?!”

“I can’t, I won’t fight you.” He finally spoke up. This sentence, however, earned him a punch to the gut. He wasn’t blocking them anymore and instead letting all of them land. He didn’t care if there was pain, he couldn’t bare the thought of losing his only real friend.   
“And why not huh? Such a big hero and wigged out because you think you know me in real life?”

Now or never. He had to tell him.

“I can’t fight my best friend. I can’t fight you.” His voice trailed off again as he looked him dead in the eyes and after a few seconds seeing the realization clicking.

He backed away slowly.

“Prove it.” Was all he said as he never lost eye contact with Zero.

“Come home with me. We can talk about it without risk to our identities.” He extended a hand out to who he would hopefully for the last time call Ghastly Gust.

“I’m not going with some person who I don’t believe. You could have been stalking me for all I know. No one really knows about you Ice boy. You could be anyone, you could even be the real villain here.”

“Then something that only we would know. Ask me something. What do I have to do to prove it to you that it’s really me.” He had to make him come with him.

“What’s your home life like?” He kept his eyes down at the ground, not sure what to ask.

“I was always alone until I met you. I keep the house insanely cold. I think the way you said it was if it wasn’t for health then I was crazy. We hang out all the time but I don’t remember-”

He was cut off by a hug of a familiar body.

“Oh my god Jake...” He squeezed him a little before backing away again.

“I know what you’re thinking, we need to talk, but we can’t do that here.” He glanced at the sky asking Ice silently what the time was. “It’s about the same time I’d normally turn in anyways so, come home with me? We can say it was a last minute sleepover. Tell your parents that I remembered something and didn’t want to stay alone-” He was cut off.

“You act like I wouldn’t go now that I know who you are. I’m flying us it’ll be faster.”

That was the last thing he said before grabbing Zero around the waist and launching both of them into the air flying back to what they called home.

* * *

Jake finished pulling on a pale blue hoodie before either of them started to talk. Both of them had already removed their costumes, Jake putting his away and giving Sam a spare bag to put his in. Despite Sam being taller than Jake they could still wear each others clothes easily. Neither of them going for style, both for comfort. Jake had baggy gray sweat pants and blue hoodie while Sam had black sweat pants and white hoodie. Sam sat on the bed waiting for Jake to finish and come over to join him on the bed. When he did Sam spoke up.

“You’re Sub-0-Hero. My best friend, you are the super hero of New York.” He sounded awestruck but Jake couldn’t let this go.

“You’re the Ghastly Gust. New York’s super powered villain. Why?” He was thankful that Sam didn’t seem to hate him for not telling him anything. Probably because they had both kept it a secret but that hadn’t stopped him from worrying.

“I don’t know.” His voice trailed off as he looked down to the bed. He didn’t want to do this to him but if it was the only way to make him talk then he would.

Jake made a move to sit straight and reach out towards Sam only to flinch and wince in pain grabbing at the spot where Sam had punched him earlier. He wasn’t actually in any pain, sure he hadn’t blocked it and at the time, yes, it had hurt, but now he hardly felt a thing. If scaring Sam was what it took to make him talk then he would do it. He needed to know why. Sam, instantly upon seeing Jake, shot into action. He grabbed his shoulders and looked him up and down, his face full of worry.

“Please Sam. Tell me why. Was it something that I did? Something I didn’t do? Do you hate me now? Knowing who I am, do you hate me?” He kept his eyes down on the sheets and let Sam slide closer to him to support him in case any “injury” proved to be worse.

“Why would I hate you? You’re my best friend. Jake I can never hate you.” It was like he was on auto pilot.

“You tried to kill Sub-0. You tried you kill me. Do you hate me that much?” He needed to do more. Guess just simply flinching wasn’t enough. He had to do more, good thing he was a good actor.

He thought over all the hits he had let land on him. Head, chest, gut, he could work with these. He looked up at Sam again reaching to grab onto his shoulders, he winced at every movement he made and put lots of his weight onto Sam. This of course scared Sam that he had done more damage than he thought.

“Jake? I don’t hate you. I never have and I never will. I’ll explain it all to you, but I just have to make sure you’re okay first. Jake?” Sam supported his body in a gentle, firm way, that was kind and caring. Yes he was enjoying this, maybe he could milk it longer. Still the head wounds.

He pretended to sound tired and distant. It was a weekend for them anyways so they had the whole day to talk to each other about details if this didn’t go how he planned. “I’m fine. Don’t worry about me. Are you okay? I know I can hit hard I’m sorry. I need to know why. I can’t recover if I don’t know why.” Sam kept him close pulling him to lean on his chest. Was it wrong to like this attention? No, not at all, not wrong to love it at all. When you’re alone all the time attention like this feels nice.

“Jake? You’re really scaring me bud, I don’t think you’re okay.” He was so worried it almost hurt to keep the act up.

“I’m okay.” He dropped the distant tired sound from his voice and brought it back to normal. Head wound maybe was a bit far. He didn’t want to fall asleep and wake up to Sam calling 9-1-1 thinking he’d fallen into a coma. “You said you wanted to prove something to someone? Who?”

“….” He remained silent staring at the far wall. Jake’s posters of fictional heroes were very interesting apparently.

“Please tell me. Can we both promise to explain everything to each other? Once we understand that then we can move on with what to do next. We have all night.” He didn’t move away from Sam while speaking but instead wrapped his arms around him and hugged him.

“You need to recover.” Sam was trying to stall.

“I’ve been doing this for years. Bruises are nothing to me anymore. Can we promise each other that much? To tell each other everything from now on?”

“Yes.” He hesitated for a little before speaking again. “Sarah, as you know, she looks up to Zero. All the time she talks about how amazing he is and how cool he is and I know she isn’t wrong. I know he is everything she says, you, are everything she says. I just, I wished I could be more to her you know? I’m her big brother and she rushes over me for Zero any time and so one night, I went into her room and I asked her if she thought he could ever be beaten. She instantly told me no and then I pointed out if someone had powers they could beat him. She got quiet and then I asked her if he was gone who she would look up to the most. She said I was her second. I was born with these powers but I knew I had to keep it secret. If I didn’t then my family might kick me out, the government could experiment on me and I didn’t want that, so I hid. I thought if I could beat him then she would love me but now….” His sentence trailed off and Jake felt a wet drop of a tear hit his shoulder.

He pulled himself up to give Sam a proper hug as he then wrapped his arms around Jake and clung to him like a life line. He was shaking.

“She does love you. I know she does.” He didn’t really know what else to say. It’s not like he wanted to murder Zero he just wanted to defeat him in a fight.

“She loves you more.” What was he supposed to say to that?

“Wrong. She loves her big brother more than anything in the world. She has Sub-0 as an idol but her true hero is you. The fact that she washed over the possibility of Zero’s defeat to get to you means she still loves you the most.”

“Jake, I just wanted her to love me. I didn’t want to hurt you I never have I just-...” Jake hugged him tighter.

“It’s okay…it’s okay…. Let’s just move onto something else okay? We don’t need to worry about it. We can figure out how our powers work. Confess everything so if anything happens we know the other one?” He could feel Sam nod on his shoulder. He remained quiet. “I’ll start.” Jake said as he readjusted himself so Sam could lean on the wall as they held each other for security and reassurance that the other isn’t leaving them.

“It’s just like you I was born with my powers, and as you know, I don’t remember my past. I just remember waking up on the floor in this house. Money comes to me so I’m not worried about that but, who is sending it? Why can’t I remember anything. I’m getting sidetracked now. My powers are embedded in my body and Ice, I’m not sure how to explain it, Ice is inside me to guide me. I can talk to her and feel her and she’s always there and protects me. Ice is the reason I became a hero.”

“Its the same thing with Air and I. She’s always with me in my head. She told me to do something with my powers, something big, but I guess I got caught up in everything and I did the wrong thing.”

“What are you saying?” He lifted his head to look Sam in the eyes. His tears were gone and instead a look of longing replacing his features.

“Mind if Sub-0 gets a partner?” Sam spoke so innocently.

He smiled. “Everyone needs a partner.”

“We need to know exactly how the others powers work to do this to its full potential.” They both knew a lot about super heroes. Partnering heroes often had the downfall of not explaining their powers to the other before they get into a big fight.

Ice was telling him this was a good idea and from the looks of things that’s what Air was telling Sam as well. This was only the beginning.

“As you know.” Jake began. “I can freeze water and control ice. I can freeze moisture in the air to get a handle of where people are, if I use my powers at full force for a long time it drains me fast but I can recover from it quick and easy so it’s not that big of a deal. I can’t conjure ice from nothing I have to freeze something. People don’t know that part. They also don’t know that I have water in my arm guards, I pull from that and freeze it and then I can make more if I need it. I can branch off existing ice by manipulating it and pulling water in the air to freeze.” He paused for a moment thinking something over. “The reason I’ve never been sick? I’ve asked Ice before and it’s because my body has ice in it from her and my powers act as a guard. I can’t get sick. It’s impossible for me to be sick, I can’t get a fever and hypothermia can’t touch me I’m immune to it. I’ve never been cold in my life but I wear jackets and things to hide my identity. Now your turn.”

They had ended their hug by this point. Sitting cross legged, looking at each other on the bed. The origins of their powers were nearly identical. They spent the rest of the night telling stories about them and their sprites, Ice and Air making comments the whole way.


	6. Back Story

Seventeen Years Ago

In a room somewhere far beyond human comprehension thousands of hooded figures met. The room was dark with billions of seats and tables strewn about as figures conversed about different topics. In the center of the room was a large glowing blue table, a holographic image of the earth in the middle. Eight figures stood around the table, Water, Ice, Fire, Heat, Earth, Metal, Air, Lightning.

The hooded figures in the room are all sprites of the elements. The closer to the hologram the more they were known as elements to the humans. Sprites would meet constantly in this place to wait for a human to meet their standards. Once one did the sprite would go to them and live inside them. Having a sprite inside of them the human was able to access all of the sprites powers and talk to it. The sprite would raise the human to protect others and help with their powers. Teach them to use them to be the best that they can be. The sprite will stay with the human until the human dies and once they do the sprite will be forced out and back to the meeting place. Sprites were essentially gods. Gods of their elements that made them.

All sprites were made out of their elements. Water the figure of a human female with aquatic features made of swirling water. Ice, the shape of a human female that appeared to be made of a crystal like ice. Fire, made of flames with a tail, Heat with wings glowing warmth, Earth made of soil and vines, flowers and grass covering her body. Air, light and wispy seeming to be contained by a light blue and clear shell. Lightning the same shell, but where there was kind wind in Air there was crackling electricity.

Water and Earth were arguing about a small glowing light on the hologram.

“None of them are suited to me yet.” Earth turned away, shaking her head as she spoke.

“You should give him a chance.” Water was desperate to get her picky sibling to take an owner.

Earth is now getting frustrated. “I’m telling you he is not the one. He is not an infant, he is grown now, an adult.”

“Just try it.” Water said, feeling at her wits end with her sister. She hasn’t accepted one in so long.

“If it goes wrong it will be your fault.” Earth vanishes from the room.

A few hours later two other figures feel a shift. These new born siblings, twins, both meet requirements. Fire vanishes from the room as does Ice. They reappear in the same arctic, barren place. A small hut with four occupants, two of them are new, three of them are powered. The father of the twins being held in their mothers arms, now gaining with Earth. The mother kisses each of the children’s heads, Fire smiling and going to the girl and Ice greeting the small baby boy. The girl lifted her hands as her large red eyes glowed and flames played around her fingers. The boy lifting up his arms ice forming in the air making a figure of all of them together. The father walks away from them leaving the mother holding her small children. She looks to the sister, twenty seconds older, and spoke.

“This one is Rei, being brought with flames I see? And this one,” She paused looking over the small boy “Something tells me that he will leave this place. He will need a name to blend with the world, to make his accomplishments larger. I’ll call him Jake.” She leans in to whisper to him. “Stay strong my little one, the slide has already begun. Ice? If my information is correct then you can hear me? Protect him and guide him when I cannot, please.”

The ice in the air twisted and played around giving the mother her answer.

* * *

It wasn’t long before Air felt a change and vanished from the room only to reappear above New York City. It was new territory for her but she didn’t mind. She flashed to the hospital room where the baby boy was being born. The father holding the mothers hand as the doctors pulled and cleaned the newly born infant. She knew he would be difficult and make mistakes but she was the same. They were a match. She went to the child and let him giggle not showing her powers aware of the risk he would have with them. They were not alone and he could be compromised and without being able to defend himself she would only give him her powers when he was alone until he was old enough to know what to do with them. The baby was handed to his mother, smiling down at him she spoke.

“Welcome to the world Sam.”

* * *

 

Seven Years Later

Sam knew now that his powers were secret. He often talked to Air inside his head, to the rest of the world he was drifting off but inside he knew he didn’t want to be tied down, he wanted to fly. He went into his room and flopped down on his bed after dinner one day, staring up at the ceiling thinking to himself with Air in his head.

“Hey Aria?” Aria was a nickname he had given to her, it was easier for him to call her that instead of air and if he ever slipped up he could say he had an imaginary friend.

“Yes Sam?” She was kind with him draped in white cloths that hung loosely off her body.

“Do you think I’ll ever meet someone else like me? Someone else who has powers? I mean, I guess I wouldn’t know cause secrets and all that stuff, but I think it would be nice.” He rolled over on his bed and pulled the blankets up around his shoulders facing the wall.

“Soon. I can feel their presence. You’ll have an encounter with them and you’ll know you aren’t alone. But for now you should sleep Sam. You’re growing and you need sleep. You have many adventures in front of you, rest while you still can.” He closed his eyes as a warm burst of air coiled around him.

“Goodnight Aria….” He mumbled as he drifted off to sleep.

Later that night New York had its first encounter with Sub-0-Hero.

* * *

 

Seven Years Later

Sam is now fourteen years old, going out shopping with his family to look at furniture. They had been wandering around aimlessly in the store for a while before Sam noticed a boy around his age looking at things in the store and down at a list. There was no one with him and he seemed to be completely on his own at the store. Sam tugged on his moms sleeve to silently get her attention before looking over at the other boy.

“He’s all alone. Think he’s lost?” He asked as his mom eyed the boy.

“Go up and talk to him. You’re popular at school but you don’t have any real friends. You should try to make one.” She pushed him by his shoulder towards the other kid.

“They have to be cool. No one fits what I’m looking for.”

He walked over anyways stopping and waiting for the other to notice. After standing awkwardly for a few moments and the white haired boy not acknowledging his presence what-so-ever, he spoke.

“Uh, hey? Are you here with anyone? You seem like you’re on your own.”

“Not wrong. I’m alone.” He turned and looked at Sam with a blank expression, almost like he was sizing him up.

“Do you want to be alone? Or, well I guess I don’t have a choice. Need a friend? I’m Sam. My parents are over there. Come on.”

Aria spoke to Sam telling him this was good. Meanwhile, Ice was speaking to Jake and telling him to go, normally he’d have been much more wary and tense but with Ice as his constant companion and reassurance he went.

They spent the whole time together Jake letting Sam do most of the talking and eventually the boys would be together everyday. Always playing or doing some other sort of activity. Their bond became better and better, with each other in at least one class since freshman year, they told each other everything. Almost, everything.


	7. Team Bonding

Chapter 7

Two weeks after Gust vanished New York’s super villain, Ghastly Gust, has vanished just as he appeared. The credit of course went right to Sub-0-Hero to have supposedly taken him down. The news was doing their best to try to figure out what had happened but all they had were guesses. Sam and Jake spent more time together at Jake’s house than they had before. They would discuss each others powers, strengths, and weakness’s. They spent time in the basement training and practicing maneuvers with each other, as well as strategies for if they got into a tough spot.

“We need to talk about it.” Sam spoke up after a quick move with wind that had sent all the training dummies flying into the wall, sweat forming on his forehead as he wiped it off and continued on. “If one of us gets hurt, what do we do?”

“We’d need to abort whatever mission we were on. Get the other out and get back here. I have medical books here and we can study up on what to do in spare time. Basic one-o-one though, keep them talking as much as you can. Just don’t let them sleep. If they are awake then we can do this.”

“What if we need to do like, a surgery or something like that?” He wanted to be prepared, being a superhero was dangerous they had to be able to help each other if something went wrong.

“We can do it. I’ve asked Ice about it countless times. They can guide us through what we have to do.” Jake gave a little smile to his friend.

They continued on with training after that until both of them were thoroughly tired out and stopped for a break. Jake grabbed the water bottles they had and frowned when he felt they were warm, chilling them quickly before handing one over to Sam.

“How did we ever live without knowing about each other?” The wind in the room was cooling and swirling around, even though the thermostat didn’t effect the basement.

“Clearly we didn’t want to bring the other into our trouble so we made ourselves blind.”

“Hey, you know what you need to do?” Sam had his child-like wonder again, never a good sign when he’s saying he should do something.

“What?”

“I call Air, Aria. It makes it easy and less stiff, I can also say her name in public and people think I have a girlfriend. You should do the same with Ice so we can talk freely and if something happens and we’re normal people out there, we can say something.”

He hesitated as he thought about all the things he could do. Ice sat in his mindscape waiting for his answer. She was always smiling and happy with him, always gentle and accepting. She hadn’t said anything about names. He closed his eyes and talked to her about it.

“Anything you want to be called?”

“Anything you want. We are one. I will accept any name you give me.” Her voice gentle and kind as always.

“I don’t want to give you something you don’t like.”

“Just listen to how you feel.” She let her sentence drift off as he focused on his emotions.

He opened his eyes again and looked down at the floor before saying her name out loud for the first time.

“Luka, I’ll call her Luka.” When he looked back up at Sam all he saw was his friend sitting with a raised eyebrow and a playful smirk.

“Dude.” Was all Sam said.

“What?”

“You look so small and innocently cute when you do that. You look like a kid again. It’s kinda adorable.”

“Sam. Really?” Jake sighed and Sam started to laugh.

“Oh come on you know I’m just messing with you. Luka it is.”


	8. Bitter Breeze

Tonight was their first night going together like this. After tonight, Sub-0-Hero would officially have a partner. Both of them were tense as they got ready at Jake’s house. Jake put on his standard uniform in his room setting everything normal again before he went to the hall to check on Sam. They had made a design and new uniform for him to wear to hide his identity and a new name as well. After tonight it would be Sub-0-Hero and Bitter Breeze. They had rigged up small ear pieces to be able to talk if they got split up. Sam walked out of the bathroom fully dressed and ready. His uniform was black and white, miming Jake’s but still keeping an original feel to it. The basics were nearly the same however he had no symbol. Sam had a white under-suit that covered up majority of his skin and black metal armor. He had arm guards that shielded his forearms from danger, as well as a pure black chest plate that covered his whole torso with straps to keep it secure on his shoulders and around his ribs and sides. Different levels allowed for him to bend in it easily. Not being able to bend in a battle is a bad handicap so they had made adjustments. He had a black mask formed to his face like Jake’s to keep it secure covering the lower half of his face.

“Inverted colors of Gust, think anyone is going to notice?” Sam looked up at Jake like a child. Even behind the mask he could tell he was worried people would call him a villain while he tries to help.

“You’ll be with me so you should be okay. If anyone asks just say you helped me bring down Gust. Not technically a lie, either, since you are the one who ultimately decided to be a hero with me.” He gave a small smile stretching the reinforced fabric of his mask.

Sam returned it. “Okay. So where do we start? What do we do?”

“Normal days I just run around until Ice-, Luka, alerts me or something else gets my attention. I go assess it and work from there.”

Sam’s smile grew wider as he heard Jake trying to make the change. “I can ask Aria to feel out anything out of the ordinary.” “Alright then, are you ready to head out? Test out your skills being a hero?”

Jake gave him a smirk as Sam rolled his eyes. “It’s almost like our personalities switched.”

“Yeah, well you said it yourself, I’m cocky.” Jake’s smile widened as Sam shook his head.

“I am so done with you.”

“I know. Come on we’ve got work to do.” Jake pushed past him and went to his bedroom window.

“What are you doing?” Sam raised a curious eyebrow.

“Leaving.” Short and blunt. He put his foot up on the open window ledge.

“But wait you can’t fly-”

Sam was cut off by Jake winking and jumping out. Sam rushing to the window looking down and seeing Jake climb down the rest of the way using small ledges around the house.

“I could have just flown you down you know.” Sam climbed out and closed the window again before floating down himself. “Lets get out.”

That was all he said before he wrapped his arm around Zero’s waist and took them high up into the sky in a matter of a single minute. Zero clung a little closer to Breeze while looking down at the ground.

“Holy crap.” His sentence trailed off as he stared in disbelief at the ground.

“Haha, again you look like a child.”

That earned him a punch in the shoulder as he flew the two of them to a city roof top and they scanned the area. Everything went as a normal night. They worked together bringing down small crimes around the city using their senses to figure out where to go. In the beginning Breeze watched Zero, but the longer the night went on however, the more it became Zero watching Breeze. He was doing good, very good. People were reporting to the police that there was another hero in the town. This was good. The more people knew about there being two heroes the more people were going to forget about Gust and not call the police when they find the wind has a certain movement.

They were about to turn in for the night when both of them picked up on something. A group of people were surrounding another person in a back alley. Breeze and Zero exchanged one look before taking off in the direction of the alley way. When they got there they found a group of of large rough looking men pinning a teenage girl into the corner. Both of them recognized her from school, she was a quiet, nerdy girl who shared some of their classes with them. She was always kind to them and tried to help them when they didn’t understand just as they helped her when she didn’t. She was wearing a long, flowing galaxy shirt with black skinny jeans and white converse. She held her laptop case behind her protectively. The five men around her moved in closer, from the looks of it they were bikers, leather jackets and all.

“Come on girl. Hand over the bag, we wont hurt you if you do.”

“Somehow I find that hard to believe.” She was sassier than they thought.

“Now now let’s not get mouthy. You have something for us.”

“Oh you mean the recording of you killing an innocent man? The recording that I’m going to be handing over to the police.”

“You mean the recording we’re going to destroy after we kill you.”

Right after that the lead man who had been asking questions, a tall, heavier set balding man, stepped forward grabbing the girl by the chin. Before that Zero had kept his hand on Breeze’s arm.

“Don’t go. Not yet. We need to play this right. Are you up for another fight? I can take this one if you want me to.”

“No, it’s okay. I’ve got it, I wait until they make a move.”

The second the girl was grabbed at the chin he was no longer on the roof with Zero. He shot down kicking the leader in just the right way to knock him to the ground. He turned his attention to the other goons sending a blast of wind at each of them to knock them back before running and quickly punching them each in the temple to knock them down for the count. The leader getting back up behind him and Zero jumped down behind to punch him out as Breeze turned to fight him. The incredulous look Zero received was more than priceless.

“What, I couldn’t let you have all the fun now could I?”

“You just can’t let me save the day can you?” Both the heroes turned their attention back to the girl whom they’d just saved. She was staring at both of them in disbelief.

“You’re….”

“Are you hurt miss?” Breeze was gentle as he stepped towards her cautiously. Zero stepped back keeping his smirk hidden but showing his clear pride in everything his best friend had accomplished tonight.

“I’m fine. Thank you, so much for saving me.”

“It’s the least we could do to help someone like you, although I am perfectly sure that you could have easily taken them by yourself.” A small blush painted her cheeks as she looked at the ground which caused Breeze to smile a little.

“Wait. I’m an intern at a news station. All we know about is Sub-0-Hero, what should we call you?”

Breeze hesitated for a moment turning to look at his partner and Zero stepped up next to him putting a hand on his shoulder, nodding to him.

“Bitter Breeze, but we don’t do this for the glory, we do it because we want to help people.”

“You’re good at it.”

Zero broke into the conversation. “Miss, if you don’t mind, would you like to be the only reporter we speak to? If the media ever has questions for us about events then you can reach us. What do you think?”

She stared at him in disbelief for a moment before nodding. A smile stretching his mask as he pulled out a disposable phone from his pocket and handed it to her.

“It’ll be a pleasure working with you Reagan.”

He gave her a wink as her mouth dropped open. Before any other trouble could be caused Breeze wrapped an arm around his partners waist and floated them up to the roof before yelling down to her.

“Don’t forget to call the police and tell them about your would be muggers! Don’t forget your evidence on them either!”

Once the boys could hear the sirens on their way they looked at the time establishing that it would be wise to return home. They stayed quiet for majority of their journey until they returned back to Jake’s house to change. Once Sam floated them through the window and Jake pulled the curtains closed they pulled off their masks and shared a look with each other.

“Dude, could you be any more of a play boy?” Sam watched his normally quiet and serious best friend become the most flirtatious, cocky, and over the top man he’d ever seen.

“Hey! At least now we have a reporter that can get our side, she’s a fan.”

“You know that how?”

“She talks about me at school. She was also the only one analyzing Gust in a manner that was pretty spectacular actually.”

“Do you do that a lot?”

“Do what? Fan-service? I’m not against it and if they’re a fan or seem shaken up then I do different things. Helps keep people on our side.”

“Why would they turn against us?”

“Well, if there are others with powers like us, how many more do you think will come after us to try to fight? How many will have a grudge on our cities? How many will want to test their strength against us? How many out there will hate the heroes of New York for missing something?”

“You have a point.”

“Exactly, but until then we just have to hope that no one else like us shows up like that.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Dun DUn Dun! Everyone take a wild guess what's happening next chapter. I'm sorry this chapter is late, I thought I had more buffer than I actually did, but I found a system that should allow me to write more and get chapters out to you guys on a regular schedule again. Keep an eye out because Chapter 9 comes along with the sibling story of Sub-0. Shock Shooter will be coming out the day after chapter 9 is released so look forward to that! I hope you all enjoyed!


	9. Raging Rain

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A new the very first super powered villain shows up in New York and calls out the heroes. This could be the beginning of a much larger threat.

Three Months Later

News reports have spread around that Sub-0-Hero is no longer the only hero of New York City. As well as reports coming from Queens that yet another new hero has been stepping out of the shadows after supposedly three years of work. Her name was Shock Shooter, being dubbed that once the reports came that her powers were control over electricity. Sam and Jake had both looked into it, their curiosity perking with the sounds of another powered hero. There were countless theories that had spread out about Breeze and who he really was as well as revised versions on the Sub-0 end of things. Sam would spend nearly all of his time at Jake’s house and his family didn’t really mind all that much. Jake was always a good friend to Sam and it would do him good to have some company at his lonely house. They had offered to have Jake stay with them at their house when the two had met when they were seven, but he hadn’t wanted to leave his home, it was a clue to where he came from and he couldn’t lose it. It was Sunday night and they had just come back from patrolling and gotten showers. Sam had basically moved into Jake’s house and his parents didn’t mind considering his age and their bond. They were so close age wise it was to the point that sometimes they would joke and say they were twins by how close they were and the fact that Jake would call Sam’s parents mom and dad, it would always work.

They went to school Monday morning and went through the whole day like normal, planning out where they’d patrol later in the evening during lunch. They were chatting and laughing like normal until they both felt a sharp tug of their powers. They shared a look switching to hero mode nearly instantly before fighting off the urge to reach into their strength in public like this. It would blow their secret identities to nothing. They each silently asked what was happening. They got the same cryptic response.

“A dark power has emerged.”

“Jake?” Sam looked up at his best friend, he was the senior hero, he might know something about this. “What does that mean?”

“I...don’t know...” He was just as confused as Sam was about the matter.

Neither Luka nor Aria would give them any more of a response than that when they tried to figure it out so the two spent the rest of the school day attempting to put together the pieces. When they reconvened at the end of the day they went directly to Jake’s house to try to learn anything from the internet forums and news. There was nothing. They kept looking and kept looking, eventually they decided to rest for a little and get something to eat before they resumed and left for patrol. While Sam was standing at the counter and Jake was cooking the food Sam’s phone rang. He pulled it out and answered it quickly seeing who it was Jake glancing up at his friend.

“Yeah Mom?”

Within the next second Jake saw his always happy friend go ghostly white and looked like a mix of anger, dread, and pure terror. Immediately he stepped forward to see what was wrong trying but failing to hear the other end of the conversation.

“No she’s not over here with me.”

Jake knew what that meant. Sarah. His little sister.

“Okay. Okay, yeah Jake and I are going to look around for her. We’re going to find her.”

Jake walked over to the living room and looked around outside for any signs before turning on the television to the most reliable news station. He heard Sam hang up the phone and he turned around quickly crossing back over and putting a hand on his shoulder to shake him out of it.

“Hey, it’s going to be alright. Let’s go on patrol early, we’re going to look for her together it’ll be okay.”

“We can’t risk our identities in the day time. You know that as much as I do maybe more. We do this as Sam and Jake and look at night as Breeze and Zero. Deal?”

“Yeah, whatever you want man.”

The duo went to the door to go investigate but the “Breaking News” alert stopped them as they turned to face the television screen. Both of them moved closer to the TV to confirm what they were seeing when the screen showed downtown, a reporter was standing in front of the camera with a microphone skillfully ignoring what was happening behind her while the camera looked up into the sky to see what looked like a teenage girl floating up in the sky with water swirling around both of her arms like shields. She was wearing black and blue Kevlar and struck both of them as very Black Siren esc. They heard the reporter continue.

“The assailant is continuing to destroy property all over downtown and while she hasn’t come down or made a statement yet the city is wondering where are our heroes? This new villainess-”

She was cut off as the Villain came down to street level and strutted right up to the camera her heels clicking on the asphalt as she did. Her blond hair was long and curled up into a tight high ponytail while her makeup was dark blues and blacks her light eyes lighting in the camera, she was beautiful.

“Hello New York City. My name is Raging Rain. As you can guess,” She lifted her hand and made the water contort around her hand before she dropped it again. “My powers involve the water. I control it all. If your little heroes don’t come out to face me by the end of the night then I will make all the water rise to swallow this city into its beautiful, cold, suffocating, abyss. Hand me Sub-0-Hero before the end of the night. Do not test me.”

Without another word she shot back up into the sky on a stream of water, lifting her hands and blasting a zero into the side of the building with the force of ten hundred fire trucks.

“Well that sounds lovely.” Jake just half heartedly said it as he continued to stare at the screen to watch the villainess fly away.

“Sarah is out there and now there’s this… What the hell has our life turned in to.”

“A comic book. That’s what you said all that time ago, remember? When Gust was just beginning and you were telling me. Our life would be like a real life comic, you were so excited.”

“That was before my sister was in danger.”

“It’ll be okay.”

“What do we do now? She called us out specifically, we- Jake we have to stop her. She’s going to hurt people.”

“I know. Sam, like you said Sarah is out there with this. I think,” He hesitated a moment “I think we need to take down Rain first. Sarah is small and she’s young but she’s smart. She will be alright but not while this villain is out there. We have to protect the city first.”

He nodded. “Okay...Okay. It makes sense yeah. So what. It’s, the sun will be setting soon-ish I guess. I said we shouldn’t get into uniform this early before but now I think we might have to.”

“Agreed.” He put a hand on Sam’s shoulder and gave a squeeze. “She only called me out, if you want to go look for Sarah while I go fight-”

“No. It’s like you said she’s smart. Besides this is the first super villain that is actually going to hurt people. What are partner’s for if I leave you alone out there?”

“Okay, let’s suit up then.”

* * *

Within the next fifteen minutes Bitter Breeze was flying Sub-0 over the city skies right into downtown. People and news crews were watching intently as they flew over head trying to find where Raging Rain had flown off to. Zero pressed against his partner a little closer and tightened his grip. 

“Breeze. You feeling what I’m feeling?” 

Without anything more than a nod the duo flew down to the roof of an abandoned warehouse on the east side of the city. Out-skirted, isolated, perfect place for a villain to ambush a hero. They were both feeling the tug on their powers that they had earlier, not as intense but it was by all means still there. By then the sun had set and darkness overtook the city and cast the shadows around every inch of the expansive rooftop. 

“We need a plan for when we get in there.” Breeze was anxious. He wanted this to be over and done with. 

“I know.” Zero paused for a moment to think before turning back around to face his partner, his face set in a serious expression, rare for the hero. “She only called for me. Not you. That either means she doesn't know you are real. Or she doesn't consider you to be a threat.”

“Big mistake.”

“Right. So, we both go in. You float the whole time don’t touch down, it could make noise. I’ll walk in and do my usual cocky hero speach, stay hidden until I give the signal okay?”

“Sounds good enough to me. Ready when you are.”

Taking a deep breath they each steeled themselves when Zero opened the door to the rest of the building, Breeze was hovering three inches off the ground and Zero stepped in first looking around before heading in deeper. He moved carefully but quickly, the longer they waited to take down this villain the longer they had to wait before they could find Sarah and get her home safely. He jumped down and landed softly on the cement floor of the main room. It was large and dark, boxes piled up on the sides of the room and metal scaffolding sat in large piles here and there. Wires and cables hung down from the ceiling and in the middle of it all, water twisting about her arms and legs, stood Raging Rain. Breeze hung back behind a large crate stack, he was hidden from view but he could still see his partner and the villainess from around the corner. Zero stepped towards her clearing his throat to get her attention. She didn’t even turn around as she began to speak to him. 

“You know, I don’t think I’m like you.”

“Being a villain tends to put a separation between them and the hero, yeah.” He stepped around to face her. 

“You were born with your powers, weren’t you? That’s what this little voice keeps telling me. She says I’m not supposed to have these powers. That I was not chosen, but the Green Man says I need them.”

He paused for a moment. The water sprite didn’t choose this girl? Then how did she- “Who’s the Green Man?”

“Tsk Tsk Ice Boy. The Green Man gave me my powers. He told me I could be strong like you and all I would have to do is bring you down and I’d get to see my big brother be happy again. He said he’s jealous.”

There was something in her voice, something childish. The story she was telling, the pieces were falling into place. He spared a glance to where he knew Breeze was hiding and idly wondered if he was reaching the same conclusion. 

“Your big brother?”

“Mhm!” She nodded happily and smiled opening her mouth to speak. “His name is S-” She was cut off by a sharp scream biting out of her lungs as she doubled over and grabbed her head. “I’m sorry! I’m sorry! Yes! I’ll bring him down! Please just let me make him happy!” 

Zero stepped forward to see if she was alright. He had a sinking feeling in his chest about what was happening here. He didn’t really want to be right. 

“Rain…” He spoke again once she had righted herself and had a cold glare on her face again. “How old are you?....” 

“Why does that matter?”

“I just….Sarah?.....”

She took three steps back and Zero caught the way Breeze whirled around the corner, staying hidden slightly but his head in the open to watch fully of what was happening. “How did you know?!”

“Sarah. Is your brother’s name Sam?”

“Tell me how you know! Did you hurt my big brother?! Is that why he gets sad when I talk?! I’m going to boil you!”

All he could do was lift his hands in surrender before she was focusing on him and the water around her began to steam. In seconds Zero could feel the ice inside of his body that he had a physical connection to get warmer and warmer. A wave of dizziness overtook him and he fought to stay standing. Steam was starting to come off of him as he fell to his knees and fought to take air into his body. 

“The Green Man said ‘Daddy says hi’”

He could see black in his vision and struggled to move his hand and grab his chest to be sure he wasn't actually having his heart ripped out of him. 

Luckily Breeze was watching the whole time. That was his little sister, being manipulated by some other villain who could hand away sprites and she was boiling his best friend, his partner. 

“Sarah!”

She looked behind her and saw Breeze floating a foot off the air his eyes thrumming with power as he watched Zero collapse further to the ground struggling to breathe and stay awake.

“Who are you?!”

“I’ll tell you if you let him go.”

“Breeze- Don’t!-” He was cut off again by the heat increasing and he gagged putting his head back down to the floor. Every inch of his body hurt and new pain came off every second the heat inside him continued. 

“Zero I’m not letting this keep happening. Sarah! Stop what you’re doing, you’re being manipulated this isn’t you.”

“Liar! I’m just trying to make my big brother happy! What would you know!”

“Your brother is happy. Happier than he’s been in a while. I promise you, and it’s all because of Sub-0, Zero is the reason he’s happy, okay? So if you hurt him then you’ll make your brother sad. Alright?”

Sarah waited for a little bit before she released her hold on Zero. He wasn’t moving. Breeze couldn’t even tell if he was breathing. This was bad. Breeze stepped forward a little more. 

“You gotta let the sprite go okay? Let the Green Man take the powers back. You don’t need them they’ll destroy you.”

“How do you know my big brother?”

“I can’t-”

“Tell me!”

To punctuate her demands she aimed her hand back to Zero’s body and steam came off him again as he gave a low whimper of pain. If he couldn’t get up then that was going to be a serious problem. 

“I- I’ve met him. We’re friends at school but he doesn’t know who I really am because it would get him hurt. So you can’t tell him okay?”

She hesitated for a little before she put her hand down and left Zero now gasping on the ground. At least he was breathing. 

“Let the Green Man take your powers back okay? You’ll be okay, I promise.”

“He will be angry.”

“That’s okay. It’s okay. I’ll keep you safe alright?”

He could see Zero pushing himself back up behind her and saw the look of determination on his partner’s face. 

“Sarah. You can let it go now.”

“I can hear him...He’s telling me not to listen to you.”

Zero was pushing himself up to his feet when she said that and he decided it would be as good a moment as ever to rejoin the drama.

“He’s a villain sweetie.”

“Make your brother proud and fight back against the Green Man, can you do that for us?”

She hesitated before she nodded at them happily. She closed her eyes and before they knew what all was happening her body showed like it was all underwater before it vanished and left the regular four year old behind. Breeze wasted no time kneeling down and hugging her close to his chest as she clung back for dear life. 

“Why don’t you get her home B. I’ll meet you back at base.”

“Are you okay?”

“I’ll be fine. Get her home.”

Before Breeze could protest the plan any further Zero was gone. 


End file.
